- Used Porsche Taycan EVs can be had on the used market for less than half the price of a new one.
- Car journalist Tom Voelk bought a certified pre-owned 2021 Taycan 4S.
- After driving it for six months, he made a video documenting his ownership experience.
Electric performance cars rock, but they have a huge problem. For all their speed and grin-inducing driving dynamics, they suffer from huge depreciation as soon as they leave the dealer lot.
One of the worst offenders is the Porsche Taycan. A new one can easily go over $150,000, but on the used market, they can sometimes be had for less than half their original MSRP. That’s an awful reality for the first owner, but it’s fantastic news for anyone who’s looking for a half-priced luxury EV.
Car journalist Tom Voelk jumped on the opportunity and bought a certified pre-owned 2021 Taycan 4S earlier this year. The car had an original price tag of around $164,000, but after being driven for 32,000 miles, its value plummeted to $73,000.
But does that make it a good buy?That’s a screaming deal, but this is Porsche we’re talking about, which means a minor issue can quickly empty one’s bank account for repairs. As Voelk explains in a six-month review, his Taycan has proven mighty reliable after six months of ownership. Having two years of warranty left also helps.
Range-wise, the four-year-old Taycan is much better than the official figures. Despite its age, it can casually beat its 227-mile EPA range rating, with Voelk estimating around 235 miles of range at highway speeds and up to 287 miles in the city.
The charging speed is also impressive, with the pre-facelift Taycan getting over 250 kilowatts from DC fast chargers. It also has access to Tesla Superchargers via an adapter, making road trips fuss-free.
But no car is perfect. For instance, the trunk is quite small for such a large car, as is the front trunk. Every once in a while, Apple CarPlay doesn’t want to connect, and the native Apple Music and Spotify apps don’t work in this particular car, despite the owner paying a subscription fee to Porsche to enable them.
The main thing about these cars, which were very expensive when new, is that they’re still very expensive to fix if something goes wrong. That said, during Voelk’s six-month ownership of this CPO Taycan 4S, just one major issue popped up. The car wouldn’t start up and displayed an “electrical system error” in the instrument cluster. That’s normally code for “prepare your bank account,” but in this case, waiting for 10 minutes with the car locked solved the problem.
The owner still went to a Porsche service center, where the car got software and firmware updates, and the issue never popped up again. The service technicians also said that they found nothing wrong with the car in the first place.
It’s also worth mentioning that the first-generation Taycan is affected by several recalls, including for the HVAC system and the braking system, but all of the recalls on this particular car were done before it was sold on the used market.
When all is said and done, the most important question is: Would he buy the Taycan again? And the answer is: yes. Now, where can I find $70,000 and some change for a used Taycan?
